Bench, VC's in Accounting & Burnout Brain ????

Howdy ??.?2025 is going to be a great year, can you feel it? Let’s go. Is 2025 the year that AI Agents are going to dismantle the burden of administrative tasks that we loathe doing every single day? Like every year, who knows what this one will hold for us, but I can tell you one thing - you’re still going to wake up, brush your teeth, hopefully shower, and get on with your day to try to create a positive outcome for yourself. Some things never change.

That’s what we’re on a mission to continue doing this year - create positive outcomes for our clients, our team, and our community. We hope that this little newsletter serves as a reminder of that and sparks some curiosity, intrigue, and smiles this year.

To frame our update: we help growth companies elevate their financial and operational data through leveraging the best humans, platforms, and tech in the market.

Let’s Dive In ??

?? TL;DR

1. What Bench Got Right and Wrong
2. Data Fuel: The Data Value Chain
3. Venture Capital Ventures into…Accounting Firms?
4. University of Colorado Breaking Startup Records
5. What Does Burnout do to Your Brain?

?? The Saga of Bench?Accounting

The accounting industry has been tumbled around over the last month with the abrupt closure, and fire-sale acquisition, of Bench. Here is my take on their wild ride, impact on the accounting industry, and what comes next.

But first, here are two of many publicly available reviews on Google ?? All of the reviews collectively tell a story of ups and downs, hot and cold, and a slew of customer success challenges. But reminder…it’s a small glimpse into MOST businesses - any business forging new territory is going to face highs and lows.

So there is a wide variety of sentiment around the product that Bench was producing. When looking at their website, they’re heavily geared towards the smallest of companies, predominantly single-member LLCs. I love how their pricing page notes that the cost of the bookkeeping is '100% tax deductible’. It signals to outsiders the types of clients that they are after...

Ok, so here are some takeaways, among a dozen others if you dig deep enough:

3 Things They Crushed ??

• Democratization of Bookkeeping Services: They offered accessible and tech-enabled bookkeeping that were underserved by traditional firms.
• Simplified Client Onboarding: Bench pioneered an onboarding experience that was touted as simple, intuitive, and human-led.
• Technology & Pricing: They provided a new way to engage with their clients’s financials via their built tech and packaged access in an easy-to-understand pricing model.

Key Lessons: Creating simplicity, utilizing best-in-class technology, and serving traditionally underserved markets provide significant opportunity. Pioneering is hard and Bench forged a new approach that raised the bar for so many other accounting providers.

3 Things That Crushed Them ?

• Product-Led vs Accountant-Led Services: A lack of connectivity and understanding of their client’s financials led to significant churn figures. As well as frustration and in the transition process. The ‘dedicated bookkeeper’ approach worked in sales messaging, but fell short in service delivery.
• Data & Process Dependency: The messaging of ‘scaling with clients’ did not actually lead to client scalability. Bench owned the entirety of their client’s financial data and processes. During the closure process, countless clients were stuck with Excel exports and no processes, thus having to rebuild their entire accounting rhythms.
• Overreliance on Venture Capital: They raised over $113M, thus facing immense pressures to scale rapidly to improve their valuation and drive shareholder value. This urgency likely led to prioritizing growth metrics over sustainable business practices - greatly impacting client experience (more on VC investments in accounting firms below…).

Key Lessons: Venture Capital in and of itself is not a bad thing for services-based businesses. However, outside capital does create external pressures and decision making that can be in contrast to building a sustainable and client-centric business.

Owning your data, your processes, and your documentation is mission critical. When evaluating any service, always ask the question around ownership of these key areas.

Lastly, knowing who is supporting you and your business is tremendously important. Yes, product and technology are playing an increasingly large role in accounting services, however, the human in the loop is paramount. Who are the humans in the loop??

How they left their clients and employees hanging was wrong, but I suspect that they had no other options. It sucks to be on any side of that coin. Even in the seat of having to make the decision to shut it down. So there is some grace for those involved - because it’s freaking hard. Could it have been handled better? Sure. Ultimately, it was a clearly business model issue that turned them in. There will be ample ripple effects of this closure for years to come. We’ll see what Employer does with ‘em.

What do you think? On the mark? Way off base? Let us know at [email protected].

?? Turning Your Data into Value

SMBs today are swimming in data—but here’s the thing: data alone won’t drive your success. It may actually become a massive inhibitor if the data is living in siloed and disconnected systems (remember the Bench saga we just talked about?). The real power lies in transforming that data into actionable insights that deliver measurable results.

?? Shameless Plug Break ??

Yeah, we launched another podcast - Data Fuel: SMB Data Intelligence - where we talk about all things data for SMBs. If you’re a data nerd, like us, and want to chat data with us on the podcast - let us know.

Data Fuel on Spotify

Data Fuel on Apple Podcasts

?? Shameless Plug Concluded ??

This is where the data value chain comes in. Think of it as your roadmap for taking raw information and turning it into business outcomes that matter. Here’s how it works:

1. Data: Start with the raw facts—sales figures, customer behavior, website visits.
2. Insight: Add context. For example, why are certain products selling faster than others? (this is where the connected data piece comes into play…)
3. Action: Make a move. Adjust your strategy, refine your process, or optimize your campaigns based on those insights.
4. Value: Achieve results. Whether it’s boosting revenue, reducing costs, or improving customer retention, this is the measurable payoff that drives your positive feedback loop of decision making.

Here’s a quick example: A project management SaaS platform notices a drop in user engagement after the onboarding phase. By analyzing feature usage data, they discover that users struggle with setting up automated workflows, leading to frustration and eventual churn. The insight prompts the company to redesign the workflow setup process, add interactive tutorials, and offer proactive customer support. As a result, churn decreases by 22%, and user satisfaction scores improve significantly, boosting LTV and improving enterprise value. That’s data in action - user engagement data leads to a feature redesign that drives value. Nice.

The secret to unlocking value? Focus on what drives action. Prioritize the data that aligns with your goals, deliver it to decision-makers in the right format, and watch as those insights turn into tangible positive outcomes.

Start today: Audit your data, map out your goals, implement a strategy, and make 2025 the year your business runs smarter, not harder.

?? Speaking of data - here’s a quick data point from Carta Data Minute:

I’ve got my eye on the Non-AI 50th Pct Pre-Money Valuation figures. Not too bad for the second half of 2024. I’d say things are looking up for some capital unlock in 2025.

?? Need to know: Business News

>?Proprietary Data Sets AI Companies Apart. You’re just humming along building your AI startup, then funding stops because the data set you’re using to train your models isn’t rich enough. Investors at Battery Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and Databricks Ventures all believe that access to unique data sets that create feedback loops into an AI system is what’s currently setting AI companies apart from their competition. (Unique Data Sets Drive Long-Term Potential)

>?20 VC’s Share Predictions on Enterprise Tech. There’s a tremendous amount of optimism around M&A and market liquidity in 2025, particularly large and late stage deals. For early-stage companies, the chatter around raising a Series A is a bar of around a couple $100Ks to $1.5M top line ARR with the ability to grow 3x from there. With a strong founder-market fit and ambition to go big - you could potentially see a $15M - $25M Series A. (There’s Also A Lot of Agent Talk)

>?Venture Capital in Accounting Firms?? Yes, Accounting Firms. Private Equity actually led the wave of investments over the last 5 years and now VC’s want in on the action. They’re looking to “pick up small accounting businesses with the intention of transforming them through AI.” Well, would you look at that. New Mountain Capital was the first to ‘successfully’ flip their investment of Citrin Cooperman in a sale to Blackstone. So…now there is precedent. We’ll be following along this journey with a close eye considering broad AI application hasn’t yet materially impacted the transactional layer - but it’s coming and we’ll be the first to test, iterate, and implement. (A Venture Capitalist and an Accountant Walk Into a Bar…)

Are you fundraising/hiring? Know someone who is? We want to feature those in our network who are seeking capital, connections, or resources. Reach out to us at [email protected] for more information!

??? Colorado Business: Our Backyard

>?University of Colorado Spun out 35 Startups in 2024. CU Boulder broke its record for number of startups spun out from university research in 2024. As a reference point, Stanford holds the record for most startups launched by a U.S. school in one year at 38. From diagnostic breathalyzers to sustainably made batteries, you can find all kinds of innovation in our backyard. (CU Boulder is Still Focused on the Future)

Help share No Half Sends???

As a reminder, Full Send provides accounting services for $1M to $20M growth businesses and our data team helps scale businesses beyond $20M. If you or someone you love is struggling with their accountant that never calls them back or their data that never seems to be organized, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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??? Sending it in the Wild

> For accountants, year end is typically a mad dash to the holidays only then to turn around and dive headlong into year-end close, 1099’s, and annual reporting. It’s usually crazy. We’ve been keeping our cool, but have been hard at work closing out the year and onboarding new clients.

> Curling, Skiing, Paddling, and Crafting were all things that we (and our Clients!) have been up to over the last month ahead of the January blitz. Check out some of the full sends below ??

Clickbait:?What happens to your brain when you’re experiencing burnout? Good news, it’s not permanently fried.

?? ??Roman Villard, CPA @ Full Send - Accounting | Data

Why No Half Sends? We’re on a mission to elevate data through high quality accounting, finance, and data services, building more knowledgeable and engaged team members, and engaging in our industry to move our world forward.

Send us your feedback at?[email protected] and help us stay as sendy as humanly possible. We’re ready to listen.